configuring GRUB to check another partition

[jeditalian]

ok. so i bought a 1TB hard drive, installed ubuntu 9.10, installed windows xp64 a little later on the same partition. i want to install more linux OS but i don't want to screw up my existing installations, so i made a persistent disk image of a knoppix dvd on a partition, and i did a manual frugal hd install of puppy linux to the same partition. the problem is: when i reboot, i still get the same ol' options, ubuntu, ubuntu recovery mode, 2 memory tests, and xp 64. i would just install puppy to flash drive but i am running a mobo that has broken onboard usb, so i use a pci card for usb and a ps/2 keyboard for bios and boot selection. since i cant use usb devices before an OS is running, i cant boot from flash drive, and i dont want to waste a cd on puppy linux, which i still havent tried. so what i need to know is, where do i tell the GRUB boot loader thing where to look for more OS choices. before i installed ubuntu, i had different operating systems on different partitions and my bios didn't have any trouble detecting them, but now instead of my bios' os selection menu, i have the Ubuntu GRUB thing. i just need to know how to configure it to look in more than the first partition.
i probably went about the knoppix hd install the wrong way, because all that it put in the partition is a 4.9gb knoppix.img file, but i couldnt find a simple "install to HD" option like ubuntu had.
anyway, i'm assuming i add the information to the grub.cfg. it contradicts itself by first stating "DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE", then telling me:
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

the partition i'm trying to get it to be able to boot from is sda5 or hda5, idk why it calls my hard drive sda, i thought that was for flash drives.
anyway, ima n00b and any help would be greatly appreciated.

[jeditalian]

my functional operating systems are on /dev/sda1, i need to configure it to give me the choice to boot puppy linux from sda5. then i should know enough to do it myself on anymore operating systems i want to install to hd.
or maybe just a tip on how to install something to HD from ubuntu, where my grub is automatically updatedto include the new OS choice.

[jeditalian]

o well i went ahead and burned a puppy cd, after making my mouse not invisible, i installed to hd and now i just need to edit menu,lst which i cant find. i thought i should put the lines in grub.cfg but ima get back in ubuntu and do what puppy told me to do.

[oldfred]

No, grub.cfg was telling you to edit /etc/grub.d/40_custom for custom entries.

If you have puppy set up running the osprober again should find it.

sudo update-grub

If it does not find it, you can add a manual entry to /etc/grub.d/40_custom format is a little different than the old menu.lst
Also if you put puppies boot loader (I assume old grub?) into the partition then you could add a chainboot entry. Note that grub2 counts partitions from 1 not 0 as old grub did. After all changes you have to rerun the sudo update-grub to rewrite grub.cfg.

# Chainload another bootloader
menuentry "Chainload partition 3" {
set root=(hd0,3)
chainloader +1
}

info:
The Grub 2 Guide (formerly Grub 2 Basics)
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1195275
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20.html (http://members.iinet.net/%7Eherman546/p20.html)
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3106368.0

[jeditalian]

i just reinstalled everything today cuz puppy went mad and its got issues anyway with my extra mouse buttons, my specific keyboard model is supported in ubuintu but not puppy so my volume knob does things like undo or backspace instead of volume..
so i moved all my files to my huge partition, i installed puppy first onto a flash drive cuz i accidentally formatted it, then i put the save file there too. then i installed puppy at what new grub calls 0,6 and puppygrub calls 0,5. i have issues with my usb devices, they are nonfunctional until an
os is running that loads the pci-usb drivers, because i bought one to replace my blowed up onboard usb.
i was thinking of making a new bootloader or whatever that gives a choice to boot puppy form usb drive, but that wont happen unless i find a way to load the pci usb drivers before the boot prompt. its also on my hard drive at what is now known as 0,6 previously 0,5 and i copied the old style grub code that puppy gave me. i know that if i boot from cd, it finds my save file when it boots. i am assuming that it will[ do the same if i boot from 0,6. i wont know till i try and my fresh ubuntu install just fnished so i am about to see how the bootloader looks after all that deleting i did today. so i'll be back, especially if i have trouble

[jeditalian]

i give up on puppy. it is too FAIL for me anyway. mouse, keyboard volume knob malfunctions. everything else is good except no quakelive and so hard to make it work with grub2. i installed it to a flashdrive, along with my save file so i dont have to manually set up my ip adress everytime, or navigate with an invisible mouse pointer. i may have found x.org modes that work with puppy but its just so much easier to click XVESA and move along.
since my onboard usb is fried and i dont know yet how to load my usb-pci drivers before an OS loads, if i really want to run puppy i will just pup in the cd.
but since my mouse's back button doesnt work in puppy and using my keyboards volume knob deletes stuff instead of changing the volume, right now i'd rather run OVER puppy.
when its all perfect & dummyproof, someone should buy a huge lot of those old 128mb flashdrives, put puppy on them, and throw them out like candy, because what else are you gonna do with a 128 mb flash drive? they shold be like 10 cents by now or at least in quarter gumball machines.
so i did get puppy to dual boot with ubuntu, but then the fur started flying. puppies and koalas do not get along. not yet, anyways. puppy killed itself, koala started giving me crap, and windows xp 64 was the last one standing. what i did to get that far was manually translate the menu.lst entry that puppy gave me into grub2 language, which is just some word changes and 0 to 1 or hd0,4 to hd0,5, and i did it the way that i probably shouldnt have, gksudo nautilus, and manually editing grub.conf. in the end i decided that if im going to try something out, just stick with live cd/dvd and the only thing im putting on my hard drive is a save file so i dont have to manually configure my network settings everytime, and those are going on a flash drive anyway. except for ubuntu, because in ubuntu's case, the live version takes FOREVER, but its really good on HD so it has a home there.
and so the thread is [SOLVED], because i know how to do what the title says, configure grub to check another partition.